So, young men in relationships having fertility problems who went to the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center for help were found to have less healthy sperm the more process meats they ate such as bacon, sausages, hamburger and ham.

Here’s how Myriam Afeiche, from the Department of Nutrition at Harvard, got her data:

One hundred and fifty six (156) men provided 364 semen samples and completed a validated food frequency questionnaire.

We used linear mixed regression models to examine the relation between meat intake and semen parameters by comparing semen parameter levels of men in higher intake levels to those in the lowest quartile of intake (reference) while accounting for within-person variability across repeat semen samples and adjusting for age, body mass index, abstinence interval, prior fertility evaluation, smoking status, race, caloric intake, and dietary patterns.

And turns out, as she told The Telegraph, “We found that processed meat intake was associated with lower semen quality and fish was to higher semen quality.”

She also told the Telegraph that it was not clear why such foods might negatively affect sperm quality.

Other birth control activities

Earlier this year researchers at Harvard also found that young men who veg on the couch are also actively engaged in fertility control.

Using time spent watching television, the researchers found that otherwise healthy men were clocking in lower sperm counts than their active peers. In fact, men who watched more than 20 hours of TV a week had 44 percent less sperm count than men who watch almost no television.

“We know very little about how lifestyle may impact semen quality and male fertility in general so identifying two potentially modifiable factors that appear to have such a big impact on sperm counts is truly exciting,” lead author Audrey Gaskins, a doctoral student at HSPH, said in a press release.

On the flip side, men who exercised in a moderate to vigorous fashion for 15 or more hours a week had 73 percent higher sperm count than those exercising less than five hours a week.

“Mild exercise did not affect sperm quality,” the study found.

So, eat more bacon and play video games a lot to avoid creating children!